Time to do some real work on your Butane Cannon. First is a shop to the local store, where you buy
$145 worth of supplies. If all goes well, you should also have some stuff leftover. Specifically the
protective work gear (Boots, Gloves, Painter's Equipment, Goggles, Respirator), brush, black paint, and about
8 feet of fiberglass cloth.
With the supplies ready, you get to work. After about an hour of a carefully planned procedure, you admire the result and even do some testing with some fairly light objects. The Butane Cannon (which is its new name) can reliably fire a projectile roughly 30 meters, give or take a few, away. Satisfied, you put away the equipment and the cannon to focus on other projects. Specifically, the data terminal.
The data terminal could theoretically be used to program things, but it needs two things for that to happen. Well, the first thing actually involves using any code externally, but it still applies. Thing number one is an external connection - even a USB port could work. You
could try to create a USB port from scratch and wire it to the motherboard, but that's an ordeal by itself. So you decide you can just skip that step by finding a USB connector board that fits with your motherboard. You don't doubt that you could do without, you just don't particularly want to re-invent the wheel right now. Thing number two is the actual processing power of the computer. Ultimately, you decide to address this later, but you still need to do that. It's capable of programming, but pretty soon it'll be too slow for it to be useful.
You figure that either buying new computer parts and refitting the terminal could work, but that'd be pretty expensive - in the area of multiple hundreds of dollars. You could afford it, sure, but you're not sure it's the best idea. The next option is to simply scavenge some computer and electronic parts and jury-rig yourself better internals. Somehow. You don't know how you use a broken motherboard to make a processor faster, but you really try not to think too hard about it.
You end up spending
$40 on a USB board for your Data Terminal. When admiring your fancy new 3 USB 3.1 Type-C ports, you realize the importance of the data terminal and decide to keep better track of it. If you end up deciding to abandon it for something else entirely, you can always just forget about it if you need to. You finish up creating the scripting/programing application and conclude the data terminal's improvements for today.
Now to experiment with venom! You harvest the venom for today, getting a total of
3 ml of venom. You find a
Peltier Heat Pump for
$15 and buy it. Then you get to work. After plenty of CHEMISTRY, you think you're getting closer to the cause behind the expiration. At first glance, it looks like natural decomposition. It's at this point that you decide you need some more supplies. You go out to another convenient chemistry-supply store and buy a set of
Basic Chemicals for
$60. You don't really have to worry about keeping the chemicals in stock for experimenting and lab purposes, but actually making anything you've invented will require their own chemicals bought separately. b but disregarding that, they cover most chemicals that can be acquired without serious effort.
Now to get back to work. You experiment with various solutions of chemicals and compounds, adding them to small amounts of venom. Eventually you think you have a proper sample. Some testing reveals that this particular sample of a mixture of venom and other elements should last two weeks in liquid form. It should also be just as potent as the regular venom. This should cost $10 to turn a 1 ml sample into 1 ml of the better lasting venom.
Your experiments with venom powder also went fairly well. Turning the venom into a powder went along fine. In terms of expiration, the powdered venom should actually last forever without expiration. There is a fairly large caveat though - the powdered venom isn't lethal. At all. The powdered venom isn't in conditions to turn back into its liquid form when inside a warm-blooded body, and the powder itself poses no threat. You know how to easily turn the powder back into a liquid using a combination of heat and a drop of a certain chemical, but that doesn't happen naturally.
You don't bother with vacuum bagging as it feels like an unnecessary cost as a solution for a problem that you already fixed. You also now have 1 ml of Lasting Venom, 1 ml of Powdered Venom, and 1 ml of regular Venom. You used up the venom from the venom bullet that was about to expire in the experimenting. The bullet wasn't particularly useful after the venom had been taken out, so you threw it away.
Cash: $317
Housing: Trashy Garage
Holdings:
Structures- Makeshift Data Terminal
- Basic Chemistry Equipment (Flasks, Tubing, Beakers, Safety Equipment, Bunsen Burner, Measuring Equipment, Droppers etc.)
- Peltier Heat Pump (Cooling Device)
- Makeshift Terrarium [2 Deadly Scorpions]
- Roach Trap [Feeding 2/3 scorpions]
Tools & Equipment- Cheap Welder
- Handheld Drill
- Shovel
- Stinger-resistant Gloves
- Protective Work Gear - Boots, Gloves, Painter's Equipment, Goggles, Respirator
- Paintbrush
- Basic Chemicals (Used for experiments; doesn't require replenishment)
Creatures -
See "Creatures" spoiler.Miscellaneous Creations- 1 ml Powdered Venom
- 1 ml Lasting Venom (Expires in: 14 days)
Items and Materials- 3x Scrap Metal
- 4x Scrap Electronics
- 1 ml Venom (Expires in: 2 days)
- 1x Butane Can [400 ml]
- 1x Black Paint Can [7 dL]
Weapons- 1x Glock 20
- 1x Butane Cannon
Ammunition- 1x 10mm Magazine - 17/17
- 1x 10mm Magazine - 11/17
Makeshift TerrarriumScorpions- Nineteen (Fed by Roach Trap) [Maze Navigation]
- Eighty-four (Fed by Roach Trap) [Maze Navigation]
Speed: Extremely SlowHardwareCore - Scavenged
Display - 14-inch CRT Display
ExtrasSoftware- Data Entry
- Programming/Script Creator
- Gang Kids (Via Parents)
- Gang Second-in-Command
- Modern Art Dealer
- Powdered Venom: Scorpion venom in powder form that lasts forever without expiration. Poses no threat to organisms and can't naturally turn into liquiid form.
- Lasting Venom: Scorpion venom that lasts for 2 weeks while remaining just as potent. Requires 1 ml of Venom and $10 to make 1 ml of Lasting Venom.
- Microwave Gun: A handheld (makeshift) gun that disrupts communications in the area it's pointed at. Can also cook food like a microwave if close enough and you really wanted to cook food. Needs to be plugged in.
- Venom Bullet: A bullet that will 'inject' scorpion venom into the victim. Venom expires after 2 days in the bullet.
- Butane Cannon: A projectile cannon that operates off of butane to propel the projectile roughly 40 meters away.
- Makeshift Data Terminal: A rudimentary terminal that accepts and stores data.
- Perfect Pasta: Unappetizing pasta goop.
40 meters seemed appropriate, but it's still fairly hard to judge distances without actually seeing them in person. So if that seems like too much or too little just let me know. Also, congratulations, Independent Scientist has now graduated to complete pseudoscience. The nature of the game - both the "soft sci-fi"-type aspect, your superhuman sciencing abilities, and my PTSD from doing chemistry myself, don't expect the science to translate to the real world at all.
Just don't think too hard about anything that happens.
One extra thing: I've abstractified liquid containers. Now you don't need containers for small amounts of liquids. I've removed the vials from holdings. If you ever want to store large amounts of liquids, you still need a container, but for small amounts, no container is fine.
Poll
2 (22.2%)
Author
Topic: You are an Independent Scientist! (Nov 12, 2016) (Read 36706 times)